Agenda

Registration Open

Breakfast & Exhibits Open

Opening Remarks

Diane J BriseboisPresident & CEO, Retail Council of Canada

Diane J Brisebois

President & CEO

Diane J. Brisebois is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and has held that position since 1995. Prior to joining RCC, Diane held the position of President and CEO of the Canadian Office Products Association for 14 years.

Retail Council is the largest retail association in the country representing more than 45,000 retail establishments of all shapes and sizes from coast to coast. RCC`s membership covers all retail segments including general merchandise, grocery and pharmacy and accounts for more than 70% of all retail sales in the country excluding auto and gas sales.

Diane has and also continues to serve on several boards across North America:

She currently serves as a Director on the Board of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the Quebec Employers Council, Stewardship Ontario, and the Advisory Boards of the St. Mary’s David Sobey Centre for Retail, the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta and LIMA Canada

She also served as the Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Society of Association Executives, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, the Fair Factory Clearinghouse and The Forum of International Retail Association Executives

Diane also served as a Director on the Board of Covenant House Toronto for eight years and the Board of the School of Retail at Ryerson University for more than 10 years

Diane has spent more than 37 years leading retail associations in Canada.
Ms. Brisebois is a native of Montreal, Quebec and now resides in Toronto, Ontario.

A Message From the Chief

Chief SaundersChief of Police, Toronto Police Service

Chief Saunders

Chief of Police

Mark Saunders was appointed the 10th Chief of the Toronto Police Service on May 20, 2015. The City of Toronto is a vibrant diverse city covering 636 square kilometres with a diverse population of more than 2,600,000 people. The Toronto Police Service employs over 5300 police officers and 2700 civilian employees and has an annual budget nearing $1 billion dollars. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and 5th largest in North America.
During his 32-plus year policing career, Chief Saunders has had extensive investigative experience in Professional Standards, Urban Street Gang Unit, Intelligence Services, Drug Squad, Community Safety Command, and the Emergency Task Force and served as the Unit Commander of the largest Homicide Squad in Canada.

Why Seemingly Honest People do Dishonest Things

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the annual global cost of occupational fraud is $3.7 trillion. The level of fraud activity increases proportionately to the level of the offender, ultimately requiring additional due diligence at the senior level. Cynthia Mathieu, Professor at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières is an expert in corporate psychopathy, and how even top executives are not immune to poor decision making. Cynthia consults with many types of organizations on leadership, employee and management selection and executive criminal activity. She will discuss how LP professionals can navigate delegate investigations into their own executives who may also be committing crimes.

Cynthia MathieuProfessor, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Cynthia Mathieu

Professor

Cynthia Mathieu is Professor of Organizational Behavior, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. She consults with organizations and teaches on topics relating to dark personalities in the workplace, employee selection, organizational fraud and leadership. She has published empirical research on leadership, narcissism and psychopathy in the workplace.

Organized Retail Crime Networks and the Impact on Modern Retail

Organized retail crime in Canada is big. And it is getting bigger by the day.
Because of our laws, Canada is especially vulnerable to these kinds of criminal activities. Regional, national and international groups have developed multi-tiered operations that end up selling billions in stolen product back into the retail supply chain and profits fund drugs, weapons and other corrupt international schemes.
In this session, retail loss prevention professionals expose various plots and strategies and identify the most successful methods to undermine these criminal networks.

Andy BuchananDirector of Profit Protection, Rexall

Andy Buchanan

Director of Profit Protection

As the Director of Profit Protection with Rexall Pharmacy Group Andy leads the teams focused on both traditional Loss Prevention and also Internal Audit . Andy is a multi-talented executive with over 25 years of retail loss prevention experience ranging from Big Box, Grocery, Apparel, Pharmacy and Specialty retailers. He has successfully investigated and aided in the prosecution of several multi-million dollar ORC/Complex Fraud cases. Andy has had successes in both Asset Protection and Operational functions and while with Home Depot of Canada was chosen to serve in the capacity of process improvement advisor as the only Ex Pat on the ground for Home Depot in China. He has served the industry for more than two decades and his skill set encompasses Human Resources, Operations, Safety, Enterprise Risk Management, Privacy, Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery and Loss Prevention, which he has employed successfully throughout North America and Asia. While at Mark’s, Andy was twice recognized with the Retail Council of Canada Excellence In Retailing Award – Loss Prevention Category in both 2012 and 2015 for programs developed under his leadership. His experience in ORC has gained him the respect and partnership of retailers and law enforcement partners on both sides of the border.

Ron KornblumDirector of Corporate Security, Loblaw Companies Limited

Ron Kornblum

Director of Corporate Security

Ron Kornblum, Director of Corporate Security for Loblaw Companies Limited has worked within the Loss Prevention industry for 25 years. Ron first began his career with Zellers Inc. and worked progressively over the next 11 years with The Hudson Bay Company in a variety of Loss Prevention roles. In 2003, Ron joined Indigo Books and Music as a Regional Director of Loss Prevention and was a senior member of the team awarded the Retail Loss Prevention award by the Retail Council of Canada in 2006. Since then, Ron has held the role of Regional Loss Prevention Manager for Old Navy managing their Canadian market and prior to joining Loblaw, Ron held the role of Director, Loss Prevention and Corporate Security for Walmart Canada where he oversaw the Training and Development, Product Protection, Profit Improvement and the Corporate Security and Investigation teams.
Ron is a Certified Forensic Interviewer, Certified Fraud Examiner and has completed studies in Law and Security with Sheridan College, Cyberspace Security with Georgian College and most recently, Ron has achieved Black Belt status in Lean Six Sigma with Schulich School of Business.

Rui RodriguezNational Director, Asset Protection, Holt Renfrew

Rui Rodriguez

National Director, Asset Protection

An accomplished bilingual Loss Prevention & Security Executive with over 20 years of progressive experience within fast paced global Retail organizations, operating in multiple streams of business including retail store fronts, Online and Distribution network. Proven performance in linking corporate vision with department deliverables through empowerment and development of people and programs and utilizing process and technology to deliver best in class results and regularly achieving or exceeding results, reducing risk and improving the profitability of the organization.
A strong motivator known within the industry for effective leadership and innovative thinking with a strong ability for building effective teams and sustainable programs.

The Fraud Shift: Why eCommerce has Become a Fraudster Playground

Card present fraud continues to dwindle at retail locations in Canada but online payment security remains a constant struggle. Despite best efforts to offer tools, resources and improved security methods, retailers continue to be victimized. Whether it’s traditional methods or more sophisticated ones, fraudsters are succeeding at defrauding Canadian businesses. Processors are on the front lines of this battle – educating businesses on how they can protect themselves with the right tools and methods to prevent the dreaded chargeback. In this session, Patrick Brophy, Product Manager, ecommerce at Moneris talks about the most common types of fraud today, those that are emerging and the best practices to reduce the risk to Canadian businesses.

Patrick BrophyeCommerce Product Manager, Moneris

Patrick Brophy

eCommerce Product Manager

Patrick Brophy is an ecommerce Product Manager at Moneris, dedicated to driving ecommerce capabilities for businesses through product innovation, education and community outreach. As commerce is becoming increasingly digital, Patrick looks to introduce solutions that allow businesses to easily and securely accept payments across environments.
Patrick is a Certified Payments Professional through the Electronic Transactions Association with over 13 years of experience in the payments industry managing online, mobile and digital commerce solutions. Prior to joining Moneris, he was product manager at Vantiv, and previously, the National Processing Company.

RCC’s “Fast Five” Thought Leadership Series

A.M. Networking Break

A.M. Concurrent Sessions

The Drive to Mine Data

The reaction to High Shrink or a Known Loss is always the same, whether it be through administrative error, spoilage, breakage or outright fraud and theft. First, find the root cause, and secondly, take corrective action. Fortunately, as any investigator knows, with any action or incident there is a tremendous amount of data left behind; call it a paper trail, footprints, or an electronic transaction log. But with the recent proliferation of data, investigating that loss is getting more complex and time consuming, creating headaches, overhead and complexity as you sift through “what happened?”.

Over the years, mining that data has been a challenge but analytic tools have increasingly helped retailers make informed decisions by calling out the exceptions that are going to affect the bottom line. In this session, learn and see first-hand how advanced analytics and data visualization is being used to identify networks and patterns, and to predict or to react to loss in the best way possible.

Alex Gobolos

Senior Solutions Consultant – Fraud & Security Intelligence

Alex is a Senior Solutions Consultant for the Fraud and Security Intelligence practice at SAS Canada. His focus is on leveraging technology and data analytics to find solutions for customers in the fields of fraud, compliance, and governance. He assists clients with the design of their financial crimes programs, aimed at capturing fraud, reducing AML risk exposure, and increasing overall efficiency.
Alex has a strong background in software and Big Data driven Analytics solutions, having spent over 8 years as a technical consultant and technical lead in the Financial Crimes field, during which time he designed and implemented solutions built on a core platform of big data analytics and Social Network Analysis. Since coming to Canada Alex has lead projects with major banks and insurance companies, including the anti-auto insurance fraud consortium, CANATICS.

A.M. Concurrent Sessions

While legal access to marijuana is simple to understand in terms of the rights of individuals, it gets a lot more complicated when it comes to managing marijuana in the workplace.

This session will present compelling facts, resources, and action steps to implement a system of policies and procedures between now and 2018 when the new legislation comes into force.

Dan DemersSenior Manager of Strategic Business Development, CannAmm

Dan Demers

Senior Manager of Strategic Business Development

Mr. Demers serves on the executive team, as the senior manager of Strategic Business Development responsible for the sustainable future of CannAmm. By providing trustworthy information, tools, and best practices for occupational testing, he seeks to achieve his mission of effectively and sustainably increasing safety for the benefit workers and their families.

A.M. Concurrent Sessions

What’s My True Loss? Is “Shrinkage” Really the Right Means of Measurement for the Future?

In this session retail loss prevention experts will explore the broader aspect of retail loss and the economic impact it has on the bottom line. As the customer and retail landscape change, business strategies must align to mitigate any risk retail loss has on profit. Shrinkage is only one of many variables a business should use for a good health check, but there are many other lines on the P&L to take into consideration which have traditionally been ignored by some organizations until it is too late.

Stephen O’Keefe

Loss Prevention Expert & Special Advisor

Stephen O’Keefe works with Retail Council of Canada to advise on the many aspects of loss prevention affecting shrinkage and profitability for retailers. He has 30 years of experience working directly with some of the largest retailers in Canada. Stephen held the role of Vice President of Loss Prevention and Risk Management with Walmart Canada, and was also a key member of a Global team dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions which exposed him to many different countries and in turn different Loss Prevention programs and philosophies.
Stephen acts as an advisor to the Loss Prevention network of professionals in areas such as refund fraud, organized crime, restorative justice and the various legislative issues that come up over time.

Colin PeacockGroup Strategic Coordinator, ECR Community and OSA Group

Colin Peacock

Group Strategic Coordinator

Colin is the Group Strategy Coordinator for the ECR Community Shrinkage & On Shelf Availability Group. He holds a similar post in America with the RILA (Retailers Industry Leaders Association) Asset Protection Leaders Council. Prior to these appointments, Colin had a thirty-year career at Gillette and Procter & Gamble, where in his last fifteen years he held responsibility for the global leadership of their on-shelf availability, brand protection and shrink prevention capability. In this role, he was responsible for delivering new thief, counterfeiter, shopper and store manager insights, an innovation pipeline of new solutions, including RFID, and profit improvement projects.

Lunch & Networking

P.M. Concurrent Sessions

The Trojan Horse: Phishing & Ransomware Attacks

If you are a popular retailer, then, unfortunately, you will undoubtedly be the subject matter of a phishing or ransomware attack. Phishing is today’s example of social engineering techniques used to deceive people. What starts as a harmless e-mail or instant message can exploit weaknesses in current web security by enabling access to data, or by forging a pathway for ransomware or other malicious software. Learn how these attacks affect your business, why the problem is getting worse, practical tips to avoid these types of attacks and what to do after the attack happens.

David S. LipkusPartner, Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus LLP

David S. Lipkus

Partner

Mr. Lipkus manages all internet based counterfeiting investigation and enforcement for Kestenberg Siegal
Lipkus LLP. He also conducts web based training of law enforcement throughout the year on behalf of several brand holders. He is active in educating law enforcement, customs, investigators and others about the impact of piracy/counterfeiting; particularizing ways in which to distinguish between authentic and pirated\counterfeit products; outlining techniques to assist law enforcement in obtaining
criminal search warrants; and assisting law enforcement on behalf of brand owners in identifying and prosecuting criminal cases.

P.M. Concurrent Sessions

Defending the Last Mile

The rapid growth of eCommerce in Canada has exposed new risks to both retailers and consumers. The Last Mile, or the last step of the supply chain between the retailer & the consumer is no longer just within the safe confines of the bricks and mortar store. eCommerce transactions can have products shipped to the doorstep, post offices, click and collect locations, courier depots, concierge desks and more. This wide array of options has exposed new risks, and new weaknesses in the chain that criminals can take advantage of. In this session, retailers and supply chain experts come together to discuss strategies to secure and defend this new frontier.

Rita EstwickDirector, Enterprise Security Development, Canada Post

Rita Estwick

Director, Enterprise Security Development

Rita Estwick is with Canada Post Security & Investigation Services. In her capacity as Director, Enterprise Security Development, Rita is responsible for mitigating risks and creating positive customer experiences through collaborative partnerships, education and security thought leadership.
Her efforts in establishing strategic partnerships with both the business and law enforcement communities have resulted in her being recognized twice on the cover of Canadian Security Magazine and participation at various educational conferences throughout Canada.
As a result of her leadership, Rita was the recipient of Retail Council of Canada’s inaugural Retail Loss Prevention Lifetime Achievement Award in September 2015.

Maria KourylevaEcommerce Transportation Manager, Walmart Canada

Maria Kouryleva

Ecommerce Transportation Manager

Maria joined Walmart Canada in 2011, as a key member of the launching inbound team and Ecommerce fulfillment center operations in Toronto. In 2012 she was promoted to Transportation Manager where she played a key role in building the last mile delivery vision and execution plans for Walmart.ca. Maria has helped develop and create a number of programs for Walmart.ca such as parcel delivery lockers, GTA private fleet, and northbound cross dock. Prior to joining Walmart Canada, Maria had spent 8 years in international logistics and supply chain. She has held various roles primarily concentrating on international logistics, customs clearance, and customer service.

James McKayPresident, The AVLECA Group Inc.

James McKay

President

Jim McKay is President of The AVLECA Group, a boutique consulting firm based in Oakville, Ontario. As a trusted advisor to executives and leaders in industry, his firm helps clients develop strategy, deliver programs and drive engagement, connecting the dots from the shop floor to the board room.
Prior to founding AVLECA, Jim spent over five years as a supply chain executive at Walmart Canada, with leadership positions in End to End Supply Chain Strategy and Transportation. At Praxair, Jim led various teams ranging from logistics, product management, continuous improvement and industrial sales.

P.M. Concurrent Sessions

The Great Debate: Privacy and Security

Security cameras are ubiquitous these days. They're in airports, bars, stores, and on the streets. Are there too many or too few? The great debate about privacy and security is ongoing, as the pendulum changes with the daily news.

In this session, Gordon Smith from Hikvision, the world’s largest provider of video surveillance equipment, and Dean Dolan, Canada's leading privacy lawyer, will explore the debate from both perspectives. How do you "balance" privacy and security? Are the two mutually exclusive? Learn how some video surveillance technology features and protocol are specifically designed to protect privacy. And, learn what a retailer’s role is in ensuring that privacy, property and people are protected.

Dean DolanCounsel to the Toronto Office, Baker & McKenzie

Dean Dolan

Counsel to the Toronto Office

Dean Dolan is Counsel to the Toronto office of global law firm Baker & McKenzie. Previously, he was in-house counsel at Walmart Canada Corporation, where he held the position of Vice-President, Associate General Counsel, and Privacy Officer, and was the senior lawyer responsible for data privacy, litigation, and employment and labour law matters. Mr. Dolan is a well-known and highly regarded privacy practitioner in the Canadian in-house legal and privacy professionals community. Mr. Dolan has served on the Executive Committee of the Ontario Bar Association’s Privacy Law Section, the Advisory Board of the Conference Board of Canada’s Chief Privacy Officer’s Council, the Executive of the Retail Council of Canada’s Privacy Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Counsel to Employers. He is an author, and frequent speaker on privacy, labour and employment, and litigation matters.

Gordon SmithNational Accounts Manager (Canada), Hikvision

Gordon Smith

National Accounts Manager (Canada)

With 20+ years of enterprise security experience, Gordon is acknowledged for his well-defined understanding of the video business. His interface and capacity to identify and align clients' emerging technology needs with products and services, offers a unique skill set that aligns with Hikvison Canada’s Enterprise Team. His successful and diverse background in Retail’s operational management, service delivery, and business-development disciplines underscores his expertise in engaging decision makers and devising winning sales strategies and solutions.
Gordon’s uncompromising ethics and transparent communications underpin his business-focused value propositions that leverage competitive advantages via top quality service. His skills in optimizing team dynamics, uniting diverse agendas to common goals, and harnessing strategic and operational drivers to deliver results is what makes him a respected expert in Retail Security.

P.M. Networking Break

Lifetime Acheivement Award Presentation

New Technologies, New Risks, New Opportunities

As retailers invest in innovative technologies to help them better understand their customers and develop faster, more convenient and personalized experiences, these same technologies are also increasingly exposing new vulnerabilities. In this session, Michael Castro, with more than 20 years of IT and Information Security experience will discuss how retailers need to be aware of new risks that come with new technology. Robotics, IoT devices, AI, VR & AR platforms, any devices that is “connected” is ultimately also exposed. Security & LP professionals must work together to strategically protect their companies and prepare for potentially devastating cyber threats and risk management implications.

Michael Castro

Senior Director, Information Security and Risk Management

Michael Castro currently holds the role as Senior Director, Information Security and Risk Management for Loblaw Companies Ltd. With over 18 years in Information Security, and over 20 years overall in IT, Mr. Castro’s diverse background has provided him the opportunity to balance cyber, security and business while providing governance that addresses risk to the organization, in accordance with the business model.
Prior to joining Loblaw Companies, Mr. Castro has held numerous Senior Info and Cyber Security roles in the areas of Oil & Gas, Finance, and Retail.
Michael Holds a Bachelor’s degree from McMaster University and a Masters in Business Administration and IT Management from Athabasca University. He also carries designations for CISSP, CISA, CISM and C|CISO.

General Session

Closing Remarks

Stephen O’Keefe

Loss Prevention Expert & Special Advisor

Stephen O’Keefe works with Retail Council of Canada to advise on the many aspects of loss prevention affecting shrinkage and profitability for retailers. He has 30 years of experience working directly with some of the largest retailers in Canada. Stephen held the role of Vice President of Loss Prevention and Risk Management with Walmart Canada, and was also a key member of a Global team dealing with Mergers and Acquisitions which exposed him to many different countries and in turn different Loss Prevention programs and philosophies.
Stephen acts as an advisor to the Loss Prevention network of professionals in areas such as refund fraud, organized crime, restorative justice and the various legislative issues that come up over time.